Bell's Cathedrals: The Church of St. Martin, Canterbury: An Illustrated Account of its History and FabricRoutledge, C. F. (Charles Francis)
History
Bell's Cathedrals: The Church of St. Martin, Canterbury: An Illustrated Account of its History and Fabric
Routledge, C. F. (Charles Francis)
St. Martin's Church (Canterbury, England)
So far as we can ascertain, no authentic records were kept at the time
of the restoration of the church in 1844-45, which was done without a
faculty. There is no doubt that its condition then was very dilapidated,
and that we owe almost its actual preservation to the munificent
liberality of Mr Daniel Finch and the careful judgment of its rector,
Canon Chesshyre; but we must necessarily regret the absence of full
particulars, and the opportunities that were then lost of exploring
thoroughly the walls, floors, and general antiquities of the church.
[Illustration: CHRISMATORY (SHUT).
(From a Photograph by Mrs W. A. Lochée.)]
On the top of the wall-plate was found a very interesting =chrismatory=,
lately in the possession of Mrs Chesshyre of Barton Court, but now placed
in a vestry-drawer used as a museum for curiosities connected with the
church. It cannot lay claim to the same renown as the =ampulla= said to
have been used at the baptism of Clovis, when legend relates that the
clerk who bore the chrism was prevented by the crowd from reaching his
proper station, and, as the moment of unction arrived, St. Remi raised
his eyes to heaven and prayed, "when lo! suddenly a dove, white as snow,
flew towards him, bearing down in his beak an ampulla filled with chrism
from above."
Not even the most enthusiastic devotee of St. Martin's could claim this
chrismatory as having been used at the baptism of Ethelbert, for it is
clearly of the date of the fourteenth century.
At a meeting of the Society of Antiquaries on December 16th, 1880, it
was thus described:--"It is a brass box 6 inches long, 2 inches broad,
and 2 inches high. The lid is high-pitched, with slanting gable-ends
nearly equilateral, and surmounted by a vertical crest or ridge pierced
with quatrefoils. The extreme height of the lid is 2-3/8 inches; that
of the vertical crest is 7/8 inch. The lid is attached behind by two
hinges, each ½ inch broad, and of which the raised plates are riveted
to the back and lid of the box. The lid is fastened, not locked, by a
hasp attached by a plate, and dropping on to a moveable catch on the
face of the box. The upper and lower edges of the box, and its ridge,
are mounted with mouldings attached by rivets. On opening the lid we found
three oil-pots, all of them in fragments, and to none of them are the lids
still remaining. At the bottom of the pots, however, are traces of some
fibrous material. The pots, unlike the box itself, are of pewter." The
necessity of keeping the three oils--(1) the holy chrism, (2) the oil
for the sick, (3) the oil for catechumens--in distinct compartments is
insisted upon by Archbishop Ælfric: "Ye ought to have three flasks ready
for the three oils, for we dare not put them together in one oil vessel,
because each of them is hallowed apart for a particular service."
The oil was contained in tow or cotton wool on a metal prong, and so
moistened either the thumb of the priest or the person of the sick.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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